


My Ally

by glitterbug84



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Other, Tentacles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2019-12-25 14:57:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18263666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glitterbug84/pseuds/glitterbug84





	My Ally

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MiriamKenneath](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiriamKenneath/gifts).



Thrawn hated few things. He hated waste, he despised boorishness, and he loathed being outmaneuvered. The boy Bridger had outmaneuvered him, and Thrawn hated him for it. He calculated his chances of revenge would be slim or none. The ship held atmosphere for a fraction of time. He knew the air pressure would re-equilibrate once they entered hyperspace proper, leaking out from every shattered window. He would be dead within minutes and Bridger with him, and Thrawn would get no vengeance except to watch his enemy die as he did.

Thrawn squirmed in the none-too-gentle embrace of the tentacles wrapped around his torso, trapping him in what would be his death pose. If Bridger held the creatures in some sort of Jedi thrall, his concentration would falter as his own air supply ran out and he succumbed to the wound in his shoulder. Thrawn might have only a few seconds of freedom. He would spend those last few seconds of his life with his hands wrapped around this Jedi's throat more tightly than the monsters squeezed.

He squirmed again. To his surprise the monster holding him squirmed back, changing its hold on Thrawn's body. If he moved just so, he might free himself.

Bridger stood still, but the strain of whatever fey powers he was using shook the muscles in his arms and legs. He could not control the creatures much longer. Thrawn turned his head suddenly as though he'd seen something, and Bridger's gaze swiveled to follow. Thrawn collapsed his arms together, shrinking his body size, and slid down through the hold of the tentacle's grasp.

It had been almost a full minute. Their air should be gone. They should be burning with hyperspace radiation, freezing in absolute zero, the gasses in their blood puffing their bodies to bloated caricatures, and their oxygen-starved brains shutting off like lamps. They should be dying, no matter what Jedi magic Bridger had concocted. Thrawn took an unsteady step towards him. They would all die, and the boy first. It would be Thrawn's last action.

His footing went out from beneath him as another tentacle snaked out around his leg. He fell to the deck, arms out as he was dragged backwards and lifted with no ceremony into the air. Thrawn dangled there, confused, angry, and bewildered as he was turned to face outward, and saw an enormous eye staring back. 

_What sort of thing are you?_ he felt inside his mind.

_I could be your ally,_ Thrawn thought back quickly. _I am far more powerful than the child._

He was turned around again, spinning upside-down.

_Ally,_ came the thought, and it was more image than words: the purrgil's image of itself and its pod, twitching together in strange union. _You want to ally with us._

_Yes,_ he grasped at the chance. He would ally with these monsters. He would usurp Bridger's bond with them.

The image in his mind changed. The writhing creatures changed

how they moved together.

"Wait!" he said out loud, but already the tentacles were tearing away his uniform like paper.

_Ally,_ it thought, and there were far worse things than dying in space, oh far, far worse, and Thrawn screamed.


End file.
